Human interface solutions firm Synaptics is said to be closer to developing workable in-glass fingerprint sensors.

The KeyBanc analyst John Vinh said this week the company's "in-display finger print sensor" is closer to "mass production" than he'd previously thought.

Synaptics is in testing with the part with a "Tier 1 Chinese OEM," writes Vinh, without citing sources. Synaptics is going up against its Chinese competitor, Goodix.

"We believe Synaptics has significantly improved performance in its in-display fingerprint sensor and is currently undergoing final qualification at a tier-1 Chinese OEM. We believe the company's in-display fingerprint sensor still falls short of achieving performance parity with capacitive sensing, but has approached levels "good enough" to warrant final customer evaluations and potential mass production".

"We believe Synpatics has made meaningful progress in working through cases such as low temperatures and direct sunlight. There appears to be only one other competitor who is sampling, which is Goodix, but we believe Synaptics holds an advantage in terms of performance and time to market".

Issues with the sensors reportedly stopped Apple and Samsung from using them in a round of flagships, raising speculation that 3D face recognition will overtake fingerprint authentication.